Written by Renmar Soreda
The members of the Davao City-based church, The Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) The Name Above Every Name, pressed a dozen of cyber libel charges against alternative media network Rappler, its journalists, and four participants for a series of exclusive reports and investigative stories since December 2021.
The complaints pointed to the media agency’s alleged violations of the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 and were filed in January and February 2022 by Apollo Quiboloy’s coordinators Aubrey Madrid Pelera and Rose Gorgoio Corda, and KOJC ministers Fahad Murphy Ocampo Sangkula and Elias Quinlog Bolanio Jr.
Charges are against the following:
- Rappler Regional Head, Inday Espina-Varona,
- Rappler Mindanao bureau coordinator, Herbie Gomez,
- Former Rappler researcher, Vernise Tantuco,
- Former KOJC members; Arlene Caminong-Stone, Faith Killion, and Reynita Fernandez, and
- Ateneo de Manila University professor and sociologist of religion, Jayeel Cornelio
Rappler’s exclusive investigative reports, news, videos, and editorials which were published since December last year viewed by the preacher’s workers as an act of “attacking, discrediting, maligning, and destroying” the reputation of their religious leader and the church.
It is remembered that three former KOJC followers who have also been included in the cyber libel complaint have consistently narrated in an interview a physical and sexual abuse they experience during their stay in the church.
Stone also detailed the preacher’s spiritual wives with whom he has sex as a practice, which he referred to as “night duty”. The wives consist of pastorals including minors and personal assistants who were threatened by physical harm and “eternal damnation” or an afterlife punishment.
Moreover, three former member-interviewees and an unnamed correspondent cited whole year fund-raising collections as a gift for the megachurch leader’s birthday on April 25th.
“The quotas, according to them, forced many members to sacrifice their education and jobs, sell food, and beg for donations in the streets in the Philippines and overseas for long hours, and in worse cases, take out loans and give everything they earned to the church because they thought these sacrifices pleased their god,” Rappler reported.
Quiboloy’s chief legal counsel, Michael Jay Green described the allegations against the self-proclaimed “Appointed Son of God” and the church as “all a bunch of nonsense” and just part of a conspiracy.
Tertiary student publication alliance College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) expressed their support to the news giant in its press release on Sunday, March 6.
“Ang paglalabas ng cyber libel complaint laban sa Rappler ay isa sa mga paraan upang matakpan ang kanilang [KOJC] tunay na pagkakamali at mga krimeng kanilang nagawa upang hikayatin at manipulahin ang publiko na walang pagkakamali at ang dapat sisihin ay ang Rappler at ang mga mamamahayag nito,” the association said.
CEGP also draws the cyber libel complaints as a part of various oppressive tactics of Duterte’s regime against those who investigate their issues.
“Mariing kinokondena ng CEGP ang mga pekeng kaso at paratang laban sa Rappler. Nagpapakita lamang ito ng pagpapatuloy ng pasismo at tiraniya ng kaalyado ni Quiboloy na si Duterte na siyang tuloy-tuloy na susupil sa kritikal na pamamamahayag at mamamahayag.”
Furthermore, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) stands solid with the news agency by urging the administration to regularize libel in its statement on Sunday.
“NUJP with other press freedom and freedom of expression advocates has long called for the decriminalization of libel, which has been often commonly used to silence and harass journalists.”
On November 19, 2021, the US District Court for the Central District of California filed a string of sex trafficking, money laundering, and immigration fraud charges against Quiboloy and eight of his associates: Teresita Tolibas Dandan, Helen Panilag, Felina Salinas, Guia Cabactulan, Marissa Duenas, Amanda Estopare, Bettina Padilla Roces, and Maria De Leon.
The Kingdom of Jesus Christ: The Name Above Every Name has six million members in 200 countries and 2,000 cities all over the world after being founded by Pastor Apollo Quiboloy on September 1, 1985.
TNC of the North 